Scarlett Johansson has accused OpenAI of using her voice in ChatGPT without her permission.
In a statement to NPR, the Marvel star said she turned down an offer from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for ChatGPT to license her voice in September. She says Altman also contacted her earlier this month to ask her to reconsider, only to once more be denied.
This all started last week when OpenAI released a 4.0 update of “Sky,” one of the five voices available in ChatGPT, to make it more expressive. However, people quickly remarked that the voice sounded much like Johansson, who famously played a similar virtual assistant in the 2013 Spike Jonze film Her. Saturday Night Live even joked about the similarities between Johansson and Sky over the weekend.
This led OpenAI to announce on Monday that it’s now “working to pause” Sky to address these concerns. However, the company was also quick to claim that Sky wasn’t based on Johansson.
“We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice—Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents,” said OpenAI in a blog post.
It should be noted, however, that Altman has previously said Her is his favourite film and even seemed to allude to it being an inspiration for the Sky update with a tweet last week that simply said “her.” All of that, coupled with the voice sounding eerily similar to Johansson, certainly makes it seem like Sky is intended to be an imitation of the actress.
In her statement to NPR, Johannson blasted OpenAI for Sky.
“I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference,” she said. This similarity led her to hire legal counsel, she said, which pushed OpenAI to “reluctantly” agree to take down Sky.
“In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our own likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity,” added Johansson. “I look forward to resolution in the form of transparency and the passage of appropriate legislation to help ensure that individual rights are protected.”
Image credit: Marvel Studios
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